One major issue of concern in society today is that Elderly people do not get the respect and care that they deserve in the American society. This is something which needs attention of the people, society and the government immediately and in the most somber manner. It has been observed by the sociologists that the condition of elderly people is comparatively better in traditional societies where these people are taken good care by family and get good respect by society. The question is that why in American society people have less sympathy towards elderly people and why they are abandoned by the family after a certain time in their old age when they need love, affection and support by the family and society. In this paper we would examine all the aspects of the issue.
Improvements and new researches in the health science have helped people in living for longer time. This is a success of medical science and governments can boast about their policies but another aspect of the issue is that respect for these elderly people has not increased in the hearts of the people and they are subject to various sufferings in their old age. This is creating some major concerns about health and security condition of elderly people and more or less this is a question of ethics and humanity. How can we abandon our elderly people who have done so much for the new generation and the society? They have built base for the development and modernization of the country and because of their contribution every body feels proud to be a part of it but in their old age no one is ready to look after them and they have been abandoned on their fate.
Jared Diamond, a psychology and geography professor in the University of California, Los Angeles is researching on this subject. A seventy two year old, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies” and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius" award put across his agony on the behavior of young people towards the elderly people of the family and the society. Diamond says that there is a natural and implied tendency among the parents to look after their children. Parents make a number of sacrifices for their children but when the children grow up, they look for their own life, privacy and individual comforts. He refers to an example related to the society of Paraguay where young men are assigned the task to kill elderly people after a certain point of time.
The professor says further that in traditional societies still the elderly people are respected but the changes are also being reported to a large extent in these societies. Modernization has played the most significant role in such changes. Young people are migrating towards big cities in search of better opportunities and abandoned their parents in the old ancestral places. Mr. Diamond says that in developed societies like America and others people are confined to themselves and their avaricious attitude and individualism has aroused them to forget their elders.
The elderly people are not capable like young ones and they even fail sometime to look after themselves in daily life. In the fast life of today, they are considered as a liability and people ignore them often and abandon them at their own conditions. The main problems in the older age are loneliness, physical limitations, isolation and abandoned by their family and society. When these people need their own family, they do not get them around because every body is busy in their own life and nobody bothers about elderly people.
A number of steps have been taken in this regard by different people and organizations in different times and it is good to say that some organized efforts brought remarkable changes in the situation and changed the approach of the society towards elderly people. Organizations like Gray panther, AARP, ASA and other Non Government Organizations are working in this regard and these organizations, by their efforts and lobbying are positively improving the scenario.
Gay Panther
Gray panther is a social organization and is working in the interest of the people, social justice and the society. The basic reason of its emergence was forced retirement of Maggie Kuhn, who founded the organization in the year 1970. Maggie was working in United Presbyterian Church but when she was at the age of sixty five, she was forced to quit her job against her will. Maggie Kuhn started a campaign against such policies to harass elderly people and her campaign took a form of an organization which was later termed as gray panthers. The organization was basically started for the welfare of old aged people but later on expanded its wings and Now the organization providing help in the field of healthcare, education, worker’s rights, and working for the betterment in many other fields as well.
Gray panthers started lobbying for their broad agenda of reforms in the area of health system, affordable housing, employment and retirement rules in the decade of eighty and expanded their wings in other fields like civil rights and gay rights in nineties. They also started filing cases in courts in furtherance of their movement and mission. Currently they are very effective and working with a huge team of members and volunteers.
AARP
Another prominent organization working in the interest for elderly people is AARP, American Association of Retired Person. This nongovernmental organization was founded in the year 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, PhD. The organization was made for the welfare of elderly people, to look after their health and to make the life convenient for them which also included several products and services .
AARP has raised their voice and lobbied for several social issues including, health, rights, social and financial security. AARP manage a variety of health services and several products related to health and they also expend a good amount of their income on lobbying. The organization organizes several fundamental programs and publishes magazines to aware the people about their rights and duties towards the elderly people and the society. In the year 1999 AARP changed its name from American Association of Retired Person to AARP and expressed its aspiration to play a bigger role inside and outside the America. The organization has a vast number of members and volunteers and well wishers across America and in different parts of world.
Though these organizations have done some remarkable things but since their jurisdiction has limits, we can not expect them to complete the task. A number of things are still unsolved and without appropriate laws and their implementation, it is not possible to solve the issue. These organizations have succeeded in awaking the people but they have limitations and can not take actions if someone is not fulfilling his or her duty. These organizations have turned the whole episode into a social movement and people seem to be widely affected and benefited by this movement. Social equality is also promoted by these social organizations, since any one can be abandoned by his family irrespective of his social and economic status and all such people from different background get support from these organizations, there is a social equality promoted among the people. People cooperate each other, share their emotions irrespective of any differences of race, region and belief.
Conclusion
Having observed several related aspects of the abovementioned issue, one can easily understand that the issue is in a grave stage and immediate attention is required. It affects the society majorly and this is not only detrimental for the social system but also against the ethical values and humanity. The issue needs attention of policy makers and more than that social activism and awareness of the people is required on the issue. Everybody has to face this stage and in a civilized society such condition of elderly people is not a good symptom for the societies and humanity. Apart from this view it is also a legal obligation of an individual to look after the elderly people of his family, no one can escape from his duty and obligations and there must be social and legal provisions to enforce an individual to abide by his duties. A number of things are yet to do and young people have to think not for themselves only but for those also who have made them able to think.
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